Measuring pressures in an application with large temperature variations presents great challenges to the measurement equipment and the dimensioning thereof. Moreover, the taking of such pressure measurements is often desired in a difficult environment, such as in connection with subsea oil installations and processing facilities, for example. Under such conditions it is common to effectuate the measurement remotely from the location where the measurement is desired. Often, a transfer medium in the form of hydraulic oil located in long lines is used. These long lines extend to a pressure gauge positioned at a distance from the desired measurement location. Even though such lines are thin, the total volume of oil within these long lines is large. It is common to use large, thin membranes (diameter larger than 50 mm) of a corrugated metal for separating the process fluid to be measured from the pressure-transferring hydraulic oil transferring the pressure to the sensor.
However, it is usually desired to have the membranes as small as possible, so as to save costs, weight, and size. In addition, the hydraulic forces are significantly smaller if the diameter of the pressure connection is small. The problem of having small dimensions (less than 20 mm), however, is that the membrane becomes too rigid and causes measuring errors which are not stable over time. This is particularly a problem when measuring pressure in the presence of large pressure and temperature differences, such as in oil installations and processing facilities, for example.